This chapter juxtaposes two research strands that developed in parallel yet have remained largely disconnected from each other: francophone approches filières and anglophone commodity chains (and global value chains). Both share an interest in the analysis of global production patterns and commodity flows. Despite their commonalities, they differ in their approach. A review of cocoa literature illustrates their respective key characteristics; followed by a discussion of how each enables an understanding of the historical dynamics of cocoa in the Ivory Coast and Indonesia, as a microcosm of the global economy in relation to tropical agricultural commodities, shifting perspectives to the hidden costs (particularly environmental and ethical) of cocoa production. The chapter argues that understanding such externalities of production is key to their sustainability and demonstrates that this was integral to approches filières before finding its way into commodity and global value chain analyses.